Yaron Gottlieb

The proposal to legally hand over the rights to the word ‘kosher’ to the Jewish establishment is even more troubling than it initially appeared from the article in this week’s AJN.
Thankfully some in the blogosphere have stood up and spoken up against this proposal.
The AJN, on the other hand, only wrote about the need for [...]

Unfortunately any scandals or misdeeds associated with a religion – or more often, with religious leaders – will always be used by some as a refutation of the religion itself. “Don’t shoot the messenger,” is a well-worn cliché, but perhaps as important is the notion that that the message – if useful or relevant [...]

Turf Wars, Tradition, and Innovation: The Case of the Soft Matzah
The recent entrance of a soft Matza into Melbourne’s kosher-for-Passover marketplace has brought the sort of furious controversy that seems to follow almost any religious innovation or attempt at doing something outside the “authorised leadership” in the Jewish community.
Matzah, for the uninitiated, is the “bread” [...]

Over the past week a number of people (off-line, of course) have praised my “courage” in writing about homosexuality and Judaism. They all assumed it must have been a very difficult post to write.
In reality, little courage was required for that. It’s actually the subject matter of this post that makes my heart heavy with [...]